To get someone to return your phone call, give them one specific reason to call, one real deadline, and one easy way to reply, then follow up across three channels (voicemail, text, email) for about 14 days before you stop. The calls that come back are almost never the clever ones. They were the short ones that told a busy owner exactly what I wanted and why it was worth two minutes of their day.
I have been in real estate for more than 18 years and have run short-term rentals since 2016. Many arbitrage deals start with a phone call that nobody answered. Rental arbitrage lives or dies on this. You cannot pitch a landlord who never calls you back, and you cannot book a cleaner, a plumber or a co-host partner who lets your number go to voicemail every time. This guide is the system I use, with scripts, a cadence table, and the compliance rules that keep you out of trouble.
Why Your Calls Go Unreturned
Before you fix the follow-up, understand why the first call died. When I review outreach logs with operators, the same five causes show up again and again.
Your number looks like spam. Many people now let unknown numbers ring out. A call from an out-of-state area code, with no voicemail, is treated as a robocall. If you leave nothing, you gave them nothing to return.
Your voicemail had no reason. "Hi, this is Sam, give me a call back" asks a stranger to do work with no payoff. The owner has no idea if you are a tenant, a buyer, a vendor or a scammer, so the safest move is to ignore you.
You asked for too much. A landlord who listed a two-bedroom for $1,800 a month did not list it to hear a 10-minute pitch about corporate housing. If your first message sounds like a big commitment, it gets pushed to "later," and later never comes.
You called once and quit. Owners and property managers are busy. A single message is easy to forget. The operators who close arbitrage deals are the ones who follow up on a schedule instead of waiting to feel encouraged.
You reached the wrong person. Many listings are handled by a leasing agent or a management company who cannot approve a short-term rental use. You can leave perfect voicemails for months and still get nowhere if the person you call has no authority to say yes.
The Voicemail That Gets a Callback
The voicemail does most of the work. Keep it under 30 seconds, say your name and number twice, and give a reason that is specific to the person you are calling. The reason should tell them what is in it for them.
Here is the script I teach for landlord outreach on a listing that has been sitting:
"Hi, this is J. Massey calling about your two-bedroom on Oak Street listed at $1,800. My number is 555-010-0142. I run a furnished rental company and I'd like to lease the unit on a two-year term with rent paid on the first, and I cover the furnishing and the cleaning. I'm touring units in your area on Thursday and choosing one by Friday, so if it's still open, a quick call back before Thursday would help. Again, J. Massey, 555-010-0142. Thanks."
That script works because it does four things in about 25 seconds:
It names the exact property and price, so the owner knows you are real and not a mass dialer.
It states the offer in terms the owner cares about: a long lease, on-time rent, and someone else handling wear.
It sets a real deadline (Thursday) tied to a real event (your tour day).
It repeats the number, so nobody has to replay the message to write it down.
Use a real deadline only. If you say you are choosing by Friday, choose by Friday. Owners talk to each other, and a fake deadline you ignore will cost you trust on the next deal.
For vendors and partners, change the reason but keep the shape. A cleaner hears: "I have four turnovers a week in your zip code starting the 1st and need a backup cleaner by the 15th." A seller hears: "I can close without financing contingencies and I'm making offers on two homes this week." Specific volume and a specific date beat enthusiasm every time.
How to Follow Up When Someone Won't Call You Back: 7 Steps
This is the sequence I run for every landlord, property manager, seller or vendor I need to reach. It turns a one-off call into a small, repeatable process you can hand to an assistant later.
Find the decision maker before you dial. Check whether the listing is posted by the owner, a leasing agent or a management company. For arbitrage, ask early who can approve a furnished or short-term use. If it is a management company, ask for the name of the person who handles owner approvals.
Call at a sensible hour, from a number you answer yourself. Call during business hours in the owner's time zone. The FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule treats calls to a home before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. local time as abusive for sales calls, and I use the same window for every call I make.
Leave the 30-second voicemail. Name, number twice, the property, the offer, the deadline. Never hang up without leaving a message on a first call.
Send a short text within 10 minutes. Only text a number that was published for contact, such as the number on the rental listing, and write it by hand. The text confirms you are a real person and gives the owner an easy way to reply without a phone call.
Send an email on day 3 if you have an address. Use a clear subject line that matches the content, such as "Two-year lease offer: 2BR on Oak Street." Put the offer in the first two lines.
Follow the cadence table below. Six touches over 14 days, with each touch adding something new: a photo of a comparable furnished unit, a one-page summary of your company, or a proposed lease term.
Close the loop and log the result. On day 14, send a polite final message and mark the lead as closed. Record the date, channel, and outcome of every touch in a spreadsheet or CRM so you can see which message types get replies.
If a person asks you to stop contacting them at any point, stop. Note it in your log so no one on your team calls them again.
Follow-Up Cadence: 14 Days, 6 Touches
The cadence below spreads six touches over 14 days, which works out to roughly one touch every 2 to 3 days. That is frequent enough to stay remembered and far enough apart that you do not look desperate.
Day | Channel | What the message adds | Target length |
|---|
1 | Call + voicemail | Property, offer, real deadline | Under 30 seconds |
1 | Text (published number only) | Confirms you are real, easy reply | Under 300 characters |
3 | Email | One-page company summary, lease terms | Under 150 words |
6 | Call + voicemail | New detail: tour date or revised term | Under 30 seconds |
9 | Text | Photo of a comparable unit you manage | Under 300 characters |
14 | Email | Polite close, door left open | Under 100 words |
A few rules I follow with this table. Change the angle on each touch; never send "just checking in" with nothing new. Keep calls to two in 14 days, because repeated unanswered calls feel like pressure. If the owner replies on any channel, stop the sequence and switch to that channel.
Here is an illustrative example of why the cadence matters. Say you contact 40 listings in a month and 1 in 10 owners replies after the first voicemail. That is 4 conversations. If the follow-up touches bring back just 1 more owner in 10 from the 36 who stayed silent, that adds about 3.6 conversations, nearly doubling your pipeline from the same list. These rates are placeholders to show the arithmetic, not measured averages. Track your own numbers for 30 days and replace them.
Text and Email Templates That Earn a Reply
Short beats clever. Each template below has one ask and one date. Copy them, then change the property details for every person you contact. Templates sent unchanged to hundreds of numbers are exactly what spam filters and compliance rules are designed to stop.
Day 1 text (to a number published on the listing):
"Hi, this is J. Massey. I just left you a voicemail about the 2BR on Oak Street. I'd like to lease it for 2 years, rent paid on the 1st, and I handle furnishing and cleaning. Is it still available? I'm touring Thursday."
Day 3 email:
Subject: Two-year lease offer: 2BR on Oak Street
Hi Ms. Rivera,
I called Monday about your unit at $1,800 a month. I run a furnished rental company and would like to sign a two-year lease. I pay rent on the first, carry my own liability insurance, and handle all furnishing and cleaning. Attached is a one-page summary of how we operate and references from two current landlords.
Are you open to a 15-minute call this week? I'm available Wednesday or Thursday afternoon.
J. Massey
Cashflow Diary
[Your street address or registered P.O. box]
Day 9 text:
"Quick follow-up on Oak Street. Here's a photo of a unit I furnished two blocks away, so you can see how we keep them. Happy to answer any questions by text if that's easier."
Day 14 close:
Subject: Closing the loop on Oak Street
Hi Ms. Rivera, I haven't heard back, so I'll assume the timing isn't right and won't keep following up. If the unit comes open again, or you have another property, my number is 555-010-0142. Thank you for your time.
The close often gets a reply because it removes the pressure, and it leaves the door open for a landlord to call back months later when a tenant moves out. If you want help pressure-testing your pitch before you send it, book a complimentary one-on-one diagnostic call. It is free, and we look at your market, your outreach and your numbers together.
Stay Compliant: Calls, Texts and Emails
Outreach rules are where new operators take on risk without knowing it. I am not your lawyer, and a call asking to lease or buy someone's property is not always a sales call in the legal sense. But once you start pitching a service, such as management or co-hosting, or scale up with software, the federal rules can apply. I follow the conservative version of each rule on every call, so I never have to guess.
The table below lists the federal numbers I keep in front of any assistant who makes calls for me, all taken from FTC guidance and the federal regulation text.
Rule | What it says | Number to remember |
|---|
Calling hours (TSR) | No telemarketing calls to a home outside these hours, local time | 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. |
Do Not Call list refresh (TSR) | Sellers who must use the registry sync their call lists at least this often | Every 31 days |
Inquiry-based relationship (TSR) | A consumer's inquiry allows return calls for this long, even on the registry | 3 months |
Transaction-based relationship (TSR) | A purchase, rental or lease supports calls for this long after the last transaction | 18 months |
Penalty per violation (TSR and CAN-SPAM) | Civil penalty ceiling the FTC lists per call or per email | Up to $53,088 (2025 figure; adjusted annually for inflation) |
Email opt-outs (CAN-SPAM) | Honor an opt-out request within this window | 10 business days |
Four practical rules come out of that table.
Do not use autodialers or prerecorded voice messages to cell phones. The FCC's rule at 47 CFR 64.1200 bars calls made with an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice to cell phones without the called party's prior express consent, except for emergencies. That covers most "blast" dialers, and the FCC has ruled that ringless voicemail counts as a call under this rule. Dial by hand and speak live.
Respect the Do Not Call Registry and individual requests. The FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule guidance says sellers who are covered must check the National Do Not Call Registry and sync their lists at least every 31 days. Separate from the registry, anyone who asks you to stop calling goes on your own do-not-call list permanently.
Treat outreach emails as commercial email. The FTC's CAN-SPAM guide says the law makes no exception for business-to-business email. Use an accurate subject line, identify yourself, include a valid physical postal address, and honor opt-outs within 10 business days.
Send texts one at a time, by hand. Send individual, hand-written texts only to numbers the owner published for contact, and stop the moment someone replies "stop." Mass texting campaigns sent through software raise both consent issues and carrier filtering problems, so I keep texting one-to-one.
What Not to Do
These are the mistakes I see most often in outreach logs, including a few I made myself in my first years.
Do not lie about who you are. Never pretend to be a long-term tenant when you plan to run a furnished rental. Say it in the first message. The landlords who say yes to arbitrage need to know up front, and a lease signed under false pretenses can end in eviction and a lost furniture investment.
Do not call five times in a day. Two calls in 14 days, spread out, is plenty. More than that reads as harassment, and the owner will block your number.
Do not send the same template to 200 numbers. Personalize every message with the address and price. Generic blasts are what spam filters are built to catch.
Do not bury the ask. If the owner has to read three paragraphs to learn what you want, they will stop reading. Put the offer in the first sentence.
Do not argue with a no. Thank them, ask whether they own other properties, and move on. A polite exit today is a callback next year.
Do not stop tracking. Without a log of dates, channels and results, you cannot tell which scripts work. After 30 days of tracking, you will know which scripts get replies in your market.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many times should I follow up before I give up?
I use six touches over 14 days: two calls with voicemails, two texts and two emails, each adding something new. After the day 14 close message, stop active follow-up and add the contact to a quarterly check-in list. Many landlords come back when their situation changes, not when you push harder.
What should I say in a voicemail to get a call back?
Say your name and number twice, name the exact property, state your offer in one sentence, and give a real deadline. Keep it under 30 seconds. A reason that benefits the listener, such as a two-year lease with rent paid on the first, gets far more callbacks than "please call me back."
Is it legal to text a landlord about their rental listing?
A hand-written text to a number the owner published for contact on a rental listing is standard practice, but I am not your lawyer. Avoid automated or mass texting tools, identify yourself in the first line, and stop immediately if the person asks you to. If you pitch a service or use software to send at scale, get legal advice first.
What time of day should I call a landlord or property manager?
Call during business hours in the owner's time zone. For sales calls, the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule bars calls to a home before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. local time, and I use that same window for every call. Mid-morning and early afternoon on weekdays usually reach property managers at their desks.
Should I call, text or email first?
Call first and leave a voicemail, then text within 10 minutes and email on day 3 if you have an address. The call shows you are a real person, the text gives a quick way to reply, and the email carries the details. Once the owner replies on any channel, switch to that channel.
What if the person says they are not interested?
Thank them, ask if they own or manage any other properties, and note the answer in your log. If they ask you not to contact them again, add them to your internal do-not-call list and honor it permanently. A respectful exit protects your reputation with the other owners they know.
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